John Wall is the best PG in the East right now

[thricethefun]

You can't "work" on your creativity, either you have it or you don't.

I would rather him focus on becoming a dominant player in the aspects he is good at, then everything else will come easier.

What's most important to the progression of this team is Wall developing confidence in being able to run the offense. Becoming more confident in his scoring can come later.

Do you believe Wall is Batman or Robin?

He's Robin.

Unless you have Magic Johnson you always want your PG to be Robin, not Batman. The track record of contenders built around point guards is not very good.

If Wall is Robin then what is Beal? Alfred? (I do agree we need to find a batman for this team)

[Illmatic21]

Do you believe Wall is Batman or Robin?

He's Robin.

Unless you have Magic Johnson you always want your PG to be Robin, not Batman. The track record of contenders built around point guards is not very good.

If Wall is Robin then what is Beal? Alfred? (I do agree we need to find a batman for this team)

I think Wall-Beal could potentially be a formidable 1-2 punch, with neither necessarily being that much better than the other. But a team built like that can only go so far. The only hope we have is that Wall/Beal become a good enough 1-2 punch that some superstar will find the team attractive enough to want to come in and be the third piece.

(Not directed at you) Then why are we building around Wall? Is he worth max money? Should we try to tank this year to get Batman? BTW, I don't want to become clippers-east (prior to CP and Blake)

No, I don't think any point guard is worth max money. This was discussed in a thread on GB, I don't even think Chris Paul is necessarily worth the max. We were basically stuck with paying Wall because he was our #1 pick and billed as the 'franchise player'

This is why the NBA is a crapshoot. If we had landed Davis we would be in business. Being forced to build around a point guard is doable, but not ideal.

[JonathanJoseph]

(Not directed at you) Then why are we building around Wall? Is he worth max money? Should we try to tank this year to get Batman? BTW, I don't want to become clippers-east (prior to CP and Blake)

Exactly. We haven't even maxed out as a borderline playoff team and already screwed again. Wall's contract is terrible and it hasn't even kicked in yet. Assuming we're going to need to re-sign Beal to a max deal we will be out of cap room thanks to Wall's contract.

[jivelikenice]

LOL. Tonight's outcome was soo predictable.

As a result of Nene's bitching:

1. Wall looked indifferent, uninterested, and unaggressive in a matchup he should have been primed for

2. Wittman catered to Nene and made the offense run through the post

3. Kyrie goes off while numerous players take turns guarding instead of just telling Wall to go try to shut him down.

Did we really re-sign Wall with the intent of making him a slow paced facilitator who waits for kick out or bail out jump shots? I thought we re-signed the player that played aggressive the last two months of last season. I totally disagree with those who think he's a Rondo type. Wall is someone we needs to get to the attack and get to the line, shoot elbow jumpers, and shoot spot up threes. He needs to then use the attention his offense is generating or his speed generates to get open shots for his teammates. Wall's offensive aggressiveness (even if the result isn't a high # of pts) is what opens up the rest of the game. Randy has no identity with this team and Nene speaking out and Randy emphasizing the post has effectively made Wall nothing more than a role player.

[jivelikenice]

You know for a fact he wasn't mentally into it because there wasn't any chest thuming or trash talking and we've seen that this year from him. Today he was playing hard, but going through the motions, doing what he thinks Randy and Nene want.

In the end it amounts to terrible leadership by Nene, bad coaching by Wittman, and a Gilbertesque response from Wall.

[Destino]

Wall has played like a poor mans Rondo these last 4 games. Less than 12 ppg and .300 fg% while passing the ball well but playing with inconsistent energy and interest. He's got to pick it up.

[B-easy]

TBH the wizards don't run 1 single play where wall is the scoring threat. He is always the facilitator while nene and beal are the scorers. Once Wall passes the ball to nene he is unlikely to get the ball back, to make things worse he finds himself a comfortable spot in the corner and rarely moves until the play is finished.

I think the coach needs to be held accountable for a lot of this. I mean, surely he has to know that wall is not playing his aggressive style like last season and nothing has changed. We need to see serious changes in his play-style not just changes in rotations. If you watch his highlights such as the MEM-IND-NYK games (last season) you will see he is penetrating off the dribble looking to get to the basket, looking to score.

This season when the screen comes for wall he sort of fakes to use it then backs off and everyone goes back to there original places and the play starts over again, then he passes the ball around to another gaurd who drops it off to nene or gortat and they will make a pass or try to score.

[payitforward]

Ok, this is the JW thread, and he isn't playing great -- while Irving had a big scoring night against us.

But John Wall is not the problem w/ this team, and Kyrie Irving isn't a superstar or even a "star" yet. On the season, Wall is playing better than Irving, even figuring in last night's game.

We have an incompetent Front Office. We have been handed huge draft advantages from our bad record and from good luck w/ the ping pong balls, yet we've been unable to stock the team with young talent. In fact, I doubt we are even a younger than average team in the league.

If you can't draft, you better do something else well. But we've made a series of brain-dead moves instead. We've wasted our cap room, we've stocked the roster with guys who are injury-prone and past their prime, and we haven't taken any advantage of opportunities to create financial flexibility.

In short, we have done *nothing whatever* well in years -- other than drafting Beal (the league-wide default choice at his spot).

Even if we wind up improving this season, even if we wind up somewhere near a .500 team, this FO -- and Ted Leonsis above all! -- should consider itself embarrassed by its own performance.

There are a lot of you on this forum who really have no basis to complain, however -- how many of you thought trading McGee for a loooong contract on Nene was terrific? How many of you loved the Okariza trade (in place of opening cap room and getting young)? How many of you thought the draft of Singleton was ok? How many of you thought we had a good off-season this year? How many of you still seem to think that going all in to make the playoffs is important?

How many of you, for that matter, thought and still think that achieving mediocrity is big, really big -- and especially because otherwise we're going to upset John Wall?

[FreeBalling]

I do not think this kid is going to earn his contract and we are f'd. At least Gilbert got us to the playoffs and filled the seats. Wall can't even get us 30 wins.

What did John Wall say last season. " I'm a max player." Let me guess it's Witt, the players, the refs, time of day. Anyone but John Wall fault.

If John Wall only had...yea,yea...yea.

How about this. What is his go to shot? Speed lay up?

Btw - last year when Wall did play well. Nene was playing good basketball. How's Nene playing?





Sent from my iPhone using RealGM Forums

[nate33]

Ok, this is the JW thread, and he isn't playing great -- while Irving had a big scoring night against us.

But John Wall is not the problem w/ this team, and Kyrie Irving isn't a superstar or even a "star" yet. On the season, Wall is playing better than Irving, even figuring in last night's game.

I can't agree with this.

John Wall is definitely a problem. He's not horrible or anything, but he's absolutely not playing like a franchise player. His numbers are extremely ordinary, and have been ordinary for his entire career except for March of last year. Excluding last March, he has never been anything better than an average starter.

Having an average starter is nice, so in that respect, he isn't costing us games or anything. But he certainly isn't leading us to victory either. We need a heck of a lot more out of our franchise player. He needs to be good enough to make up for the inadequacies elsewhere on a roster so that we are at least a .500ish team. That's what a star player does.

[tontoz]

Ok, this is the JW thread, and he isn't playing great -- while Irving had a big scoring night against us.

But John Wall is not the problem w/ this team, and Kyrie Irving isn't a superstar or even a "star" yet. On the season, Wall is playing better than Irving, even figuring in last night's game.

I can't agree with this.

John Wall is definitely a problem. He's not horrible or anything, but he's absolutely not playing like a franchise player. His numbers are extremely ordinary, and have been ordinary for his entire career except for March of last year. Excluding last March, he has never been anything better than an average starter.

Having an average starter is nice, so in that respect, he isn't costing us games or anything. But he certainly isn't leading us to victory either. We need a heck of a lot more out of our franchise player. He needs to be good enough to make up for the inadequacies elsewhere on a roster so that we are at least a .500ish team. That's what a star player does.

Which is why many of us argued against giving him a max deal last summer. What was the rush? If he played well this season we could always give him the same deal this summer. It was just another of a long series of dumb moves by EG.

And Ted is clueless as well. Why would you rehire this assclown without taking into account his past record and without interviewing anyone else?

[Dark Faze]

John Wall lost the game last night. And I clearly defend the guy a lot, but he just did. He missed too many makeable shots, any one of which would have prevented an overtime situation. As great as his ability to create for others is, we need him to be a much better scorer than he's been this last week.

We know he's capable of it.

And it's not even about the jumpshot imo. He's got respect from the refs now with his high free throw rate. He can be an elite level player even without a jumpshot at this point if he can be a more aggressive slasher.

I really think at this point that its coaching. Nene cries about team ball and he gets more touches than he has all season the next game. Not a coincidence. We need a coach that demands Wall keep his foot on the pedal.

It's been a disastrous week for him. His first week few games were pretty much carrying over from what he did late last season, but ever since then we're seeing a lot shades from year 2 Wall.

[go'stags]

Am I the only one who saw Wall find a WIDE OPEN guy time after time in the first half last night just to see a brick?

He could have easily had 13 assists at halftime last night, and the Wizards would have won. Many of them were corners threes, also.

[montestewart]

Am I the only one who saw Wall find a WIDE OPEN guy time after time in the first half last night just to see a brick?

He could have easily had 13 assists at halftime last night, and the Wizards would have won. Many of them were corners threes, also.

For all the at times valid criticisms of Wall (not attacking the basket, poor finishing, reckless when attacking the basket, shot selection, careless/subpar dribble, etc.) I've always liked his ability to find the open man, pretty much from the time he arrived (when there weren't a whole lot of open men to find). He's got his flaws, but to me the problem is that Terd and Ernie, both before and after making such a big financial commitment to him, haven't seemed to build the team with his strengths and weaknesses in mind. I give them credit for getting some more shooters, but I really don't think this team will get maximum value out of Wall as long as EG is running the show.

[deneem4]

Wall isnt learning from other elite pgs...remember lebron used to pass to open teammates in the clutch and they missed?...

People wanted to blame the teammates but really blamed lebron...walll is getting paid is the team leader...he leads us to wins or losses...we will live and die by john wall decisions in crunch time...and il rather see him attempt to draw fouls when attacking rather than dumpin off to nene mid air whens wall is at the rim already

[deneem4]

Wall isnt learning from other elite player's..remember lebron used to pass to open teammates in the clutch and they missed?...and I used lebrom because he loves passing more than anything, same as wall

People wanted to blame the teammates but really blamed lebron...walll is getting paid is the team leader...he leads us to wins or losses...we will live and die by john wall decisions in crunch time...and il rather see him attempt to draw fouls when attacking rather than dumpin off to nene mid air whens wall is at the rim already

[Destino]

Am I the only one who saw Wall find a WIDE OPEN guy time after time in the first half last night just to see a brick?

He could have easily had 13 assists at halftime last night, and the Wizards would have won. Many of them were corners threes, also.

You aren't the only one but you seem to expect long range jump shots to fall more often than reasonable. Most teams that move the ball develop open long shot opportunities, they still tend to miss more often than not unless a shooter gets hot.

[hands11]

I know that JW is a pass first PG. I agree with you, that he will not be a D Rose type scorer, but I think to be truly elite he needs to work on his creativity.

I think most would agree that Wall's game is not suited to scoring, it's suited to setting up teammates.

But Wall is averaging 15.5 FGA/game. That's more than guys like Steph Curry (15.0) and CP3 (14.7).

If you don't want him to be a scorer, then you shouldn't have max'd him.

I say all of Wall problems can be fixed by changing the line ups.

Wall scored 47 pts in a game last year. He can score. Problem is, they are putting line up out there that make him more passive because he has to many other players to feed and a clogged post. You want Wall to play like a max player, put him in line ups that allow for that.

Its actually easily fixed by changing the line ups. Take away one of his scoring option in the post ( Nene or Gortat) and let him be that scoring option instead of a PG to Beal, Webster/Trevor, Nene and Gorat. Give him another energy player in the post who doesn't need shots. Problem fixed. Its actually a no brainer.

This wasn't an option if Ves was going to suck but he hasn't. Actually Ves looks like all his hard work is caring over. Wish I could say that for Kevin S. But with what Ves has shown, he is the answer at starting PF for what this team needs. Nene doesn't want to play C so start Gortat to defend the big strong post players. Let Nene chew up on 2nd round talent and be the post scoring option when Temple or Maynor are PG. Mostly Temple for his D though.

Wall has a ton of talent. The problem is only playing to one side of it and not maximizing all of it. Specially the part of it that is him as a scorer that can get 10 FTA a game. Bring Nene off the bench and start Ves. Problem solved.

The problem is the coach way more than the roster. I would fire Randy ( Mr.. If I knew the answer to that) today.

If you can't win with

Wall, Beal, Webster, Trevor A, Nene, Gortat and solid roll players like Ves, Booker and Temple, that's on you.

Wall and Beal are top shelf talents and Webster, Trevor A, Nene and Gortat are very solid pros. With that combination of energy, defense and rebounding off the bench, you should be winning games.

Wall and Beal should be averaging 20 pts a game leading this team along with high efficiency scoring with Wall getting min 8 FTA a game and 8 assists. Randy is putting Wall is a no win situation with his line ups and rotations.

[JWizmentality]

We aren't making the playoffs with this year's Wall. We need to Wall that came back last year and the Wall in the first Philly game...oh yeah Randy squashed that real quick.

[go'stags]

Am I the only one who saw Wall find a WIDE OPEN guy time after time in the first half last night just to see a brick?

He could have easily had 13 assists at halftime last night, and the Wizards would have won. Many of them were corners threes, also.

You aren't the only one but you seem to expect long range jump shots to fall more often than reasonable. Most teams that move the ball develop open long shot opportunities, they still tend to miss more often than not unless a shooter gets hot.

Agreed, but these are WIDE OPEN threes, usually off of one pass, directly from Wall. Again, the Wizards have been shooting more corner threes than any team in the league, and are (were) on pace to shoot more than any team ever (small sample size, I know).